we were given the most precious gift of our second daughter emmy faith, celebrated the birth of three beautiful nieces, bought our first home, traveled a few miles, made lots of memories and survived one year without my dad.
more than anything i realize that each day--each moment--with those we love is such a precious gift. as i look back over these highlights from this past year, i am overwhelmed with gratitude for these days...
january
- my thirty-first birthday. my mom kept bella for the night while nick&i got dinner at my favorite indian restaurant downtown. bellies full of chicken tiki masala and naan, we headed out on the snowy streets to the mall to do a little shopping and get me (and emmy) my favorite pina colada smoothie. topped off the night with watching a movie in bed.
- i took bella to sesame street live, which was her first live "show". she sat in my lap, a mixture of nervous, excited and scared, anxiously wringing her hands while clapping intermittently. it was awesome. the minute i buckled her in the car, she began talking a mile a minute about all of her sesame street friends she saw that night.
february
- with the help from family and friends i threw a sugar&spice baby shower for my sister and soon-to-be niece, lucy. it was a really special time blessing my sister and anticipating the birth of her sweet bundle of joy!
- we lived it up over february break... we took bella to her very first tournament game at the bangor auditorium to watch nick's school, nokomis (she LOVED it! clapped and cheered like crazy "go 'komis!"). nick and some of his guy friends ripped up our old carpet and laid beautiful hardwood floors which instantly prettied up our home. he also tackled bella's big girl room, tearing off old wallpaper border and painting it.
march
- my sister successfully surprised me with the sweetest shower for little emmy. what i thought was a family dinner turned out to be a special party with family and friends... lots of food, laughter and love.
- our sweet neice, lucy mae was born on her uncle nick's birthday! we were in dallas when our nephew, jude was born, so i relished being able to be at the hospital with my sister and hold my sweet little niece within the first few minutes of her life. love that little sweet pea!
april
- just a few weeks before giving birth to our second bundle, we signed the dotted line (or, several dotted lines) to buy our first house! we'd been renting my grandparents house for a few months, and decided to take the plunge. it's the sweetest little ranch house with a cute front porch and big yard. nice and cozy. just perfect for our family!
- last getaway. my mom gave nick&i the best gift; a night in a hotel in freeport before the crazy-ness of having two babies took over our lives :) we had the best time! shopping in portland, lunch at chipolte, hanging out at our hotel, dinner and college basketball on the big screen at gritty's, outlet shopping and a stop at our fav sandwich place: big g's. i was a bit nervous all the walking would send me into labor but em stayed put thankfully! best weekend.
- bella spent her first night in her big girl bed! success.
- easter. we attended easter service at church saturday night and it was pretty emotional for all of us. while he was in the hospital, my dad continually talked about easter and how special it was going to be this year. the entire time we worshipped and sang, i choked back tears thinking about how special this easter would be for him, indeed. easter morning we woke up and had an easter egg hunt for bella and then celebrated with my family over at mom's later that day.
- after a few calls from labor&delivery to reschedule my induction, and a few days past my due date, on april 26th around 5:40 pm, our sweet emmy faith entered the world and captured our hearts. words can't express how well she fit into our family. she was smiley and sweet from the start (except from the hours of 11 pm-1 o'clock in the morning...). love our little sweetheart.
may
- i celebrated my first mother's day as the mama of two. road trip to ellsworth with my mom, sister and her family. we met up with my sister's inlaws and my aunt and uncle at jordan's snack bar for lunch and then shopped at mardens, tj maxx and reny's before heading home. i honestly don't remember much. totally sleep deprived thanks to my newest munchkin.
- bella turned two. donut breakfast. picnic at our fav park with jude, meme and aunt holly. dinner with jude and meme. family movie night: finding nemo and popcorn. perfect day. love our little two year old pumpkin (even though we entered into the world of the terrible twos on this day).
- nonni and papa came to visit us the last week in may! we were so excited! we had a great visit, lots of relaxing and snuggle time with the grandgirls.
- for bella's second birthday party, i did a paris-theme and it was super girly and fun. lots of family and friends came to help us celebrate our sweet girl.
- 4 years. nick&i celebrated four years of marriage on may 30th. his parents took us out to lunch downtown and we spent time watching our wedding video (an anniversary tradition for us) and shedding a tear or two. so grateful for my man.
june
- father's day. i had been nervously anticipating father's day since losing my dad a few months prior. but it turned out to be a great day, surrounded by family, celebrating the memory of my wonderful father, and thanking god for my girls amazing daddy. nick played golf that morning with my uncle, and then we met my mom, sister and my sister's in laws at a local marina for a picnic lunch. later that day, we hosted a barbeque at our house with my aunt and uncle and all of our families. great day.
july
- we spent two weeks in dallas this summer and had a great time catching up with our family and friends! we celebrated nick's parents 40th wedding anniversary, had a couple family photo sessions, threw a shower for nick's sister, jessica and our niece josie, celebrated our nephew, wyatt's birthday, ate some good mexican food and enjoyed our visit so much!
- a couple days after we got back from dallas, we packed up again and headed to new hampshire with my mom, sister and her family and my aunt and cousin, rachel. it was such a wonderful trip! we went to storyland and santa's village and stayed in a resort in the white mountains. bella still talks about our vacation with meme. her highlight? meeting cinderella. of course.
august
- i ran my first race post-babies! my two aunts and i ran a 5k together, which felt pretty awesome.
- road trip! a few of my high school girlfriends and i started a tradition where we pack up all of our munchkins and meet at our friend, kellie's house, who lives in a coastal town outside of boston. this year was a bit crazy, with two extra babies... totalling four mamas and eight peanuts. yes, we are brave!
- we ended our summer with a family trip to the beach, lots of fires and smores in our backyard, trips to the lake with our friends and picnics at the park.
september
- our sweet niece josie ann was born! we have prayed for her arrival for many years... such a sweet and beautiful blessing!
- football. after taking a bit of a break from coaching football, nick started back up again, assisting at the school where he works. we are so proud of our fav coach.
- almost a year after the loss of my dad, we were able to gather with family to say our final farewell and do a short but sweet graveside service. my mom bought pumpkins from each of the grandchildren, penant flags representing his favorite teams and balloons that bella and jude could release to heaven. it was a beautiful time celebrating a man that we miss every second of every day.
october
- we took a family foliage road trip to greenville to see the fall colors on moosehead lake. beautiful!!
- bella and nick had a special daddy/daughter date to sesame street live with uncle brian and jude!
- halloween. bella dressed up as a princess (shocker!) and emmy was the cutest little pink bunny. we took them to meme's work for trick or treating, and hung out at aunt holly's for a bit. fun times.
- em grew a lot this month; sitting by herself and eating cereal and some real food! she is our little chowhound; she loves food just like her mama and her daddy!
november
- nick participated in his first movember! i was pretty excited when the last day of the month came... but he had a great time stache-in' it up. he also played in two fundraiser basketball games at his school... one against the harlem globetrotters, and the other one he was the star of the court. to this day when he leaves for work in the morning bella says he's going to play basketball. we were pretty proud of our main man!
- girls weekend. i went away with some of my best (and most longtime) girlfriends the first weekend in november. we had booked a room at the embassy suites in portland and spent the weekend shopping, going out to eat, laughing and crying. it was the best weekend! so thankful for my girlfriends!
- we hosted our first thanksgiving at our new house this year. it was a bittersweet day as we also hit the "one year mark" of losing dad... thankful for god's grace and the joy his strength brings even in the darkest of times. macy's thanksgiving parade and breakfast with meme, family dinner and lots of football. thankful for our many, many blessings.
december
- em and i had a little getaway with my mom, sister and niece, lucy. we went to portland for an overnight trip coupled with a little christmas shopping. it snowed while we were there; caught emmy staring out the back windshield gazing at her first snow! she and lucy were pretty much perfect. a really great trip!
- the razah. nick was able to make his first trip to gillette to see the patriots play the 49ers with a few of his guy friends. he had a great getaway, quality male bonding time and of course some good football.
- christmastime. this year was very special and super fun with bella being old enough to get into it all. she memorized isaiah 9:6 "for unto us a child is born; to us a son is given", talked constantly about baby jesus, got excited about santa (except for when up close and personal) and ooohed and aaahed over christmas lights. another highlight was bella and me going to see the christmas production of "annie" at our local community theatre; it was an amazing show and bella was their biggest fan. emmy was her sweet, smiley self; loved our christmas tree and chilled in santa's lap while big sis was not so calm. we flew to dallas to spend christmas with nick's family and had a wonderful time.
dear jesus, thank you for all of these moments. thank you for the blessings and the hard times and for being our rock and our joy through it all. i pray that this next year will hold many memories, moments to savor and an overwhelming sense of peace. thank you for being our steadfast hope. we look forward in great anticipation to what this new year holds.
